Deuteronomy chapter 5 and let's
begin reading here in verse 16. Let's go ahead and read down
through verse 21 right quickly. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse
16. We're studying on the Ten Commandments
and we'll begin tonight with this fifth commandment that we
find in verse 16. Honor thy father and thy mother
as the Lord your God hath commanded thee. that thy days may be prolonged,
and that it may be well with thee in the land which the Lord
your God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not commit adultery, neither shalt thou steal, neither shalt
thou bear false witness against thy neighbor, neither shalt thou
desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's
house, his field, or his maidservant, his aughts or his aughts, or
anything that is thy neighbor's." When we think about this law
of these commandments, we think about two tables. There are two
tables of these Ten Commandments. You remember when God wrote them
for Moses, and he wrote them on two tables of stone. One of
the tables pertains to our attitude towards God. That's the first
four commandments. We have been studying those.
The last table pertains to our attitude towards our fellow man.
The Lord Jesus said, the first commandment, the greatest commandment,
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the second one
is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. And tonight we are
going to come here to the fifth commandment, our attitude towards
our fellow man. Now the Lord has The Lord has
rules. He has commandments that He regulates
society by. Our attitude one toward another. In the New Testament and the
Old Testament, He has the duties of the state and the government. He has the duties of people towards
that government. Their attitude towards the government.
When it comes to employers and employees, we're told in the
Bible how the employees are to treat their employers, how they're
to work for them. We're told how the employers
are to treat their employees. In the Bible, we have the relationship
between the man and his wife. The husband is the head of the
wife. He's to love his wife. She's to reverence her husband.
And in the relationship between the father and mother and the
children, That's in the Bible too. How the father and the mother
are to teach the children and the attitude of the children
towards the parents. And that's what this fifth commandment
here is about. Honor your father and mother
that your days may be long upon the earth. Now, why is this so
important? Well, for many reasons this is
important. But for one, I think probably
all of us who have any children, that of any age at all, We realize
that most of the time our homes are our last place of refuge
to have some peace, isn't it? Sometimes there's no quietness
any place until we get home and that's where we have our quietness. And what is it that can disturb
that quietness? What is it that can wreck the
peace of a home? This one job. does not respect their mom or
dad. One child that's a rebel and
disobedient, things may be well in the workplace, things may
be well between the husband and the wife, things may be well
in all of the family, but take one child that's disobedient,
and that can grieve the father and the mother. So it's important. It's important. The Lord knew
the importance of having children obeying their father and their
mother. Proverbs 17, verse 25, the wise man has so much to say
about the home and children. He said, A foolish son, a disrespectful,
disobedient son, is a grief to his father and a bitterness to
her that bore him. So it's important to have peace
in the family for the children to be obedient to mom and dad. Now, we talk about how parents
should treat their children, and I'll be honest with you,
we know this, especially in our day, but it's always been, we've
always had bad parents. I told a girl the other day,
she was having trouble with both of her parents. And maybe I overstepped
the bounds just a little bit, but when I finished talking to
her, I don't think I did. I said, listen, sometimes your
mom and your dad act like fools. They just act like they have
no sense. They lie, they cuss, and probably
steal. Sometimes they don't treat you
right. Sometimes I know they're mean to you. But then I said
to her, That's no excuse for you to be mean to them. They may disrespect you, but
that's no right for you to disrespect them. They may be hateful to
you. They may even call you bad names.
But you don't have to respond that way. See, this doesn't even
consider the parent's attitude towards the children. He could
have stopped here and said, now, if you've got bad parents, I'm
not talking to your children. But he doesn't do that, does
he? He's speaking to the children. No matter how your dad and how
your mom is, they may be bad, but you should respect your mother
and your father. You can't help how they treat
you, but you can help how you treat them. And I've noticed
this, and I think you children will notice this in your own
life. If you'll honor, if you'll esteem your father and your mother,
they're going to be much better to you anyway. If you want to
get along well in your life, and have it easier in your life,
honor your father, honor your mother. Be good to them, obey
them, and you know what? They'll love you more. They'll
manifest love towards you more. Honor your father and your mother. You'll notice here in verse 16,
the last portion of it, this is the first commandment that
has a promise attached to it. Paul makes mention of this over
in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 6. He says here, honor
your father and your mother that your As the Lord your God hath
commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it
may go well with thee." It just seems like that a child that
honors a child that respects its mom and dad, seems like that's
a happier child. Have you ever noticed that? You
take a child that's disrespectful, a child that's disobedient, have
you ever noticed that child is sort of miserable? And I think
what it is, the Lord blesses that child. He has a tendency
to make it easier for that child. And this is the promise. And
I tell you, if it's His will, if it's for His glory, that child
that loves its mother and dad and respects and honors its mother
and dad, the Lord will make it easier on that child. Now that's
the promise. And Paul carries this over to
the New Testament and tells the Ephesian Gentiles. Obey your
mother and father, which is the first commandment with promise.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the best example of an obedient child. This has always amazed me. You remember when he was twelve
years old. You guys know what it is. How old are you? Eleven? Our Lord was twelve years
old. When they took him into Jerusalem,
one of the feasts, they got halfway back home and realized he wasn't
with them. They went back and found him talking in the temple
to these doctors and lawyers and answering them. They were
amazed. But his mother came up to him
and said, Don't you realize how you've grieved us? You have worried
me sick, son." And he said, Don't you know, Mom, I must be about
my father's wisdom. But you know what the Scripture
says he did? He went back down to Jerusalem with them, and the
Scripture says he was subject to them. Now here he knew why
he came into this world. He knew the importance of the
work that he had to do. But look at the patience he exercised. What an example he is to young
people submitting themselves, being subject to their mother
and their dad. And for all of those years, he
did nothing but what his mother and her husband asked him to
do. Now that's amazing, isn't it?
What an example he is. You talk about one honoring his
father. He honored his heavenly father.
But he honored that one on earth that God had put over him. Joseph. So he is the perfect example
for us. And the Scripture says, Children,
obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to
the Lord. And the Scripture says, Ye shall
fear every man his mother, and every man his father. Reverence. That's a reverence. A holy reverence.
And you know it don't matter how old we get. We're young and
we're to respect them then and submit ourselves to them. But
when we get older and we're married, we find a spouse and we leave
our father and our mothers, you know we still honor them. We
still respect and love our parents. We still don't grieve them, do
we? We still don't want to grieve them. We want to reverence them
and honor them. I think we should do it then more than ever because
we know how to honor them then. We have some experience about
that. The Pharisees, they missed this commandment so bad, they
began to teach in Matthew chapter 15, they were teaching that children
that had gotten grown weren't obligated to help their parents
anymore. If your parent was sick, or if
your parent needed money, it wasn't your obligation to help
them. They said if you do it, it's just a gift. And the Lord
rebuked them. Remember how He rebuked them?
He said, you tell these people that the commandment to honor
their father and their mother, whatever you give them is just
a gift. Therefore, they no longer honor
their father and their mother. Because they say, I really don't
need to. It's a gift if I do. They corrupted and made void. this commandment. And the Proverbs
said, There is a generation that curseth their father, and doeth
not bless their mother. And that was that generation. Deuteronomy 27.16, listen to
this. Just as there is a promise of
blessings, there is a promise of warning and a promise of curse.
Deuteronomy 27.16, Cursed be he that setteth light by his
father. That is, lightly esteems his
father or his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. And it even deals with the company.
I can't got time to go in all these scriptures, but the scripture
deals also with the company young people keep. You young people
realize this, that there's some people mom and dad won't let
you play with. And there's some people that mom and dad don't
want you to hang out with. Because mom and dad knows that
they're not good company. Bad company will corrupt good
manners, the Apostle Paul said. And listen to Proverbs 28, verse
7. The son that is a companion of
righteous people, shames his father. That's why dad and mom
keeps you from certain company. Because if you start running
around with them, and they've got bad habits, you'll adapt
those bad habits, and then what happens? You'll bring shame on
your dad, you'll bring shame on your mother. And listen how
graphic these warnings get. The eye that mocks his father
and despises his mother, the ravens shall pick it out and
the young eagles shall eat it. Now that's not literal, but that's
just giving graphics to show that where we dishonor our mother
and dishonor our father, then the Lord won't bless it. I tell
you, I look back, I don't know if some of you are as old as
I am, if you look back on your days as teenagers and 10, 12
years old, and I suffer to this very day, over the way, my disrespect
that I showed my mother. I suffer in my conscience to
this day, and that's alright. That's alright. I deserve to
suffer that. So you young people, honor your
father and your mother, and the Lord will honor that. He has
promised to honor that, if his will is for his glory. But he
that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to
death. That is Exodus, chapter 21, verse
17. Okay, let's look now at the sixth
commandment, verse 17. Verse 17, here is the sixth commandment.
Thou shalt not kill. Now, this commandment is often
misunderstood. Some people say that is why we
should not have capital punishment. that the Bible says you shall
not kill, and to put a man to death is to kill him. But they
misunderstand this word kill. It means you shall not murder. The Bible doesn't forbid capital
punishment. It just tells if a man has done
certain crimes and he's worthy to be put to death, you make
sure he's guilty. If you put an innocent man to
death, you're in trouble. But even the Bible says there
are certain crimes that the state is allowed and even commanded
of God to put people to death for. So the Bible does support
that, capital punishment. But what it means here when it
says thou shalt not kill, it means thou shalt not unjustly
take a man's life. Man is made in the image of God. and therefore that life is precious. This image is marred by sin,
but James said we're still in God's image. God is still our
Creator and Judge, and we're in His image. Therefore, our
life is precious. A man's blood is precious. That's
why they can't make it, and they'll probably never be able to make
man's blood. It's precious. A human being is in a mother's
womb, or whether he's old, that life is precious, and that life
is not to be taken, thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt do no murder. I tell you, one of the things
that runs chills in the depths of my soul, if I ever think about
being put in a situation where I'd have to take somebody's life,
that would be awful, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be awful to take
somebody's life? The life that God gave the mother
in the womb, that would be the most horrible thing. It's done
all the time now. It's done all the time. But this
commandment forbids it. But when He says, Your thou shalt
not kill, this runs deeper than just the actual deed of taking
someone's life. And that's the thing about these
next few commandments. Boy, they search out the heart. They go deeper than just the
action of the hands or the feet. They search out the heart. It
reaches to the attitude of the heart towards somebody else.
Who is a murderer? None of us in here tonight have
probably ever killed anybody. I've never physically killed
somebody. But you know what I have done? I have killed them in my
heart. Listen to what John says. Whosoever
hateth his brother is a That's John chapter 3 and verse
15. And you know that no murderer
has eternal life abiding in Him. Have you ever had your heart
to rage against somebody? I mean, you could almost whoosh
them dead. You hated them. You know what
that is? That's murder. That's murder.
That's how deep that goes. You know this world is guilty
of murdering the Son of God. The world cannot hate you, the
Lord said, but me it hates, because I testify of it that the works
are thereof evil. This world got a hold of the
Son of God one time. He gave Himself into their will,
and what did they do with Him? They killed Him. And you know
every day, in every unregenerate heart, they are killing the Son
of God because they hate Him. They won't come to the light.
Why? They hate the light. And they
won't come to it unless their deeds be reproved. Murder has
its origin always in the heart. Murder. Thou shalt not kill. And verse 18 is the same principle. The seventh commandment. Neither
shalt thou commit adultery. This is the same principle. This
commandment reaches the heart. Not just the physical act of
adultery. But the thought of it, the thought
of adultery. Matthew chapter 5, the Lord Jesus
said this. He explained this commandment
to us. He said, You have heard it been
said of them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say
unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her,
to desire her, and this goes the same with the women towards
the men, hath committed adultery already. in his heart. So when a man has the desire
after a woman, or a desire after the man, the desire is adultery. Now we know for obvious reasons
the physical act is worse. That's obvious. But the desire,
the lust, is adultery. Clarence was telling me about
a man he was talking to and he said, if you see a woman And
you go around the block and come back to look at her. Then you've
committed adultery. Then Clarence both agree with
this. No, you don't have to go around the block. The first time
you looked at her. The first time you lusted. That's
adultery. That's adultery. See, we don't
know what goes on in hearts, do we? I mean, a man could be
as clean and as pure outwardly as a Pharisee. He could be so
separated and so holy looking, but it's the heart. It's the
heart, the desires of the heart. Thou shalt not commit adultery. And let's go on quickly to the
eighth one in verse 19. Neither shalt thou steal. If you look up the definition
of stealing, one of the definitions you'll find is physically taking
something that's not yours. Physically taking something that's
not yours. That happens a lot today, don't
it? Terrence, you know about this. You can't leave your tools
hardly anyplace. You've got to watch them and steal your tools.
Steal your car. Break into your house and steal
your... One of the big problems right now that nations are having
between themselves is stealing intellectual information. Stealing things off of your computers
and things like that. Stealing. Taking something that's
not yours. That don't belong to you. We all can relate to that. We
know what that means. You take a candy bar off of the
grocery shelf and you don't pay for it. What have you done? You've
stolen, haven't you? Mom says don't mess with this. This is for another day. But
you slip it and you take it. We know what stealing is physically. But you know it runs deeper than
that, doesn't it? There's different ways to steal.
How many ways can we steal? If I go to Terrence and I say,
Terrence, let me tell you what Clarence did. Let me tell you
something Clarence said. You just ain't going to believe
what he said. And I tell you something awful that Clarence
did. What did I just do? Well, I did a couple of things.
I just told you a good name. I stole your good reputation,
because I just stole it from you, because I just told something
on you, and something else I did, I stole his confidence that he
had in you. There are several ways to steal
from people. And you know we can steal from
God? The Bible says, will a man rob God? They were robbing him
of all of their tithes and offerings. He told them to bring their money
and support the percentage of the money, support the work,
and they wouldn't do it. He said, you've robbed me in tithes and offerings.
Give to Caesar what Caesar's rendered to God the things that's
God's. But you know, anything that belongs to God and a man
tries to take it, that's robbery. He's a thief. And you know something
that belongs to God? Glory. Give unto the Lord the
glory due His name. That's all He asks. Just the
glory that's due His name. And when a man attempts to take
the glory from God to himself, that's stealing. That's stealing. When a man attempts to take credit
to himself that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, what's he
just did? He's broken His commandment.
He's a thief. And I tell you, all glory belongs
to Him. If any man glories, let him glory
in the Lord. And the minute we try to rob
Him of His glory, we're thieves on Him. Boy, that happens, doesn't
it? What is the freewill gospel but robbing God of His glory?
What is it when we say we can't approach unto God on the merits
of Jesus Christ but robbing Him of His merits? That's what it
is. Thou shalt not steal. Let's look at the ninth commandment
here in verse 20. This is something that takes
place a lot today, too, I think. Neither shalt thou bear false
witness against thy neighbor. False witness to lie on somebody. Usually, a false witness gets
somebody in trouble. That's why they say it. And this is so prominent. We
see it all the time among our politicians. We even see it in
religion. Somebody telling something on
somebody else that's not so, just to get them in trouble.
You remember Naboth? A man by the name of Naboth.
He was a believer. He was a child of God. And he
had this vineyard, and it was next to Ahab's vineyard. And
Ahab wanted that vineyard so bad, he went and told Naboth,
he said, I'll give you all kinds of money for it. I got another
vineyard. And Naboth said, I'm not getting rid of mine earth.
That's mine earth. You ain't getting mine earth.
Well, he went back home, pouted, and Ahab did, and Jezebel said,
what's the matter, sweetheart? And he said, I want that vineyard,
and you won't give it to me. And she said, I'll get it for
you. And you know what she did? She set up two false witnesses
that said, I swear I heard Nabok blaspheme God. And they took
him out and they stoned him to death. And Jezebel said, now
you've got your venue. But God's judgment fell upon
those two for that. And the dogs licked the blood
of Ahab Worth. He was killed. and they ate Jezebel
when they threw it over the wall. False witness is awful. How many
people have been put to death? How many people have been in
prison? How many people have lost their reputation? So many
hurtful things come because somebody said they did that. Did you hear
what they did? That's awful. They did that.
No, they didn't. No, they didn't. I want you to
look over here right quickly since we're in Deuteronomy. Look
in Deuteronomy 19. Look in chapter 19. The Lord
imposed a severe penalty on those who would bear false witness
against somebody. Now think, if we had this today
in our judicial system, we wouldn't have near as many innocent people
in prison as we had. And I guess if the teachers Practice
this in school, and if we practice this in our home, and maybe with
ourselves, it may help us when it comes to this thing about
bearing false witness. Look at the penalty for bearing false
witness. In Deuteronomy chapter 19, look in verse 16. If a false
witness riles up against any man to testify against him, that
which is wrong, he's lying on him just to get him in trouble,
then both the men between whom the controversy is, shall stand
before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be
in those days, and the judges shall make diligent inquisition."
They are going to search it out, make sure they are telling the
truth. "'And behold, if the witness be a false witness, and has testified
falsely against his brother, then shall ye do unto him as
he hath thought to have done unto his brother.'" Man, that's
good, ain't it? Have you ever heard of these
prosecutors that railroaded people? We've got quite a few people
like that. What if they took that man he put in prison out
and stuck him in there? He got that man 20 years on false
charges, trumped up charges. Well, take him out and put the
prosecutor in there for 20 years. That's what the Lord is saying
here. And look at the effects it shall have. So shall thou
put the evil away from among you, and those which remain shall
hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil
among you." What evil it is to be a false witness. And there
are many ways to be a false witness, isn't there? Man, you can imply
something that's not. A misrepresentation of something.
Yeah. Not just politicians. Most of
us church members. Look at the last one. I think
of all of them in verse 21. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and look
in verse 21. I think probably of all of these
last commandments, verses 16 through 21, this is probably
the most searching of all of them. For it has to do with things
that you and I can hardly subdue in our hearts. Look what it says
in verse 21. Neither shall thou desire thy
neighbor's wife, neither shall thou covet thy neighbor's house,
his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, or his ass,
or anything that is thy neighbor's. Unlawful desires. Unlawful desires. Desiring something
that is not mine. This is one of the first sins
that the Apostle Paul realized in his heart. He thought he was
so separated. He thought he was so free from
covetousness. And here is what he said. He
said, I had not known lust, except the law said thou shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion by this
commandment, wrought in me all manner of evil desires. Our problem is this. Covetousness is so ingrained
in us. The Bible says the eyes never
satisfy. It is so ingrained in us and
this law is so spiritual. And it reaches the heart that
you and I are always being convinced of this sin of covetousness. Will you ever get out somewhere
and you see a beautiful car? I mean, it's a beautiful car.
And before you can check yourself, man, I wish I hadn't. Did it
ever happen to you? See a nice boat? I bet this happened
to you, Steve. Some tackling? Man, I wish I
hadn't. I belong to somebody else. I
thought I wish I hadn't. I pulled up at a house the other day.
Man, you talk about a beautiful place. Pull up on a hill. And
there was two palms down in the valley, a beautiful house overlooking.
I thought, man, I wish I had this. Before I could check myself,
what did I just do? What did I just do? I took something
that wasn't mine in my heart. I wouldn't have took it after
I realized, but it was on me before I realized. I desire this
thing. We're just full of desiring things
that's not lawful for us to have. We're going to quit here in just
a minute, but we've got one more lesson on this the next time
we study, because I want us to look at this law and see the
importance, these commandments, and see the importance of being
delivered from these commandments. and in what sense we're delivered
from them and what our attitude should be towards these commandments. But I hope you see tonight that
if we're judged according to these commandments, then we'll
be condemned. We'll be condemned. Because one
of the reasons these commandments are given is to bring the knowledge
of sin. And one of the things that they
do to us as believers more than to anybody else, they show us
our sin. And the more we see ourselves
in our own hearts, the more we see the spirituality of these
commandments, the more we're going to see what sinners we
are. I want you to turn with me and
close, and you can leave Deuteronomy 5, but look over in Romans chapter
7. We'll look at this next week, but I want you to look here in
closing. Romans chapter 7, and look here
in verse 7. I just quoted part of this to
you, but look at this. Romans chapter 7 and verse 7.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? And he's speaking,
you have the commandments that you and I have been studying.
God forbid, nay, I have not known sin, but by the law. For I had
not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
But sin, taken occasion by that commandment, wrought in me all
manner of evil desires, lust. For without the law, sin was
dead. I was alive without the law once, and myself I thought
I was. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life If you keep it, I found it to be unto death. For sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the
law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and they are just, and
they are good. Was then that which is good made
deaf unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it
might appear sin, worketh death in me by that which is good. that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin." See how the law keeps us down?
See how the law keeps the flesh beat down? You can't satisfy
this law. You never reach the point where
this law says, you've done it. You've arrived. You've kept me
perfectly. That's not what it's made for.
It's made to humble us. It's made to show us our sin
and how sinful it is. Look down in verse 21. I find
in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. I love the law. The law says,
Love God. I love that commandment. Don't
make any graven images. I love that. I hate making, I
cringe to think that I make a graven image in war. Don't covet what
your neighbor, I delight in that. But look at this, verse 23, I
see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So then with the mind I serve
the law of God, and delight in it, but with the flesh I serve
the law of sin. These wretched desires keep popping
up. This enmity that's in this flesh
keeps wanting to break out and kill somebody. Sin by the law
becomes exceedingly sinful. Don't you thank God. That you
had somebody that stood in your stead and fulfilled this law
perfectly on your behalf. And now charges his obedience
to you. That's what we will look at next
week. And if we're free from this law, which we must be, free
from the law of happy condition, then what's our relationship,
what should our attitude be towards this law? That's what we'll look
at next week.